Amok Time Flipped
by ReferenceGoddess
Summary: How would it change this pivotal episode if Kirk was female?


I've seen a number of gender flipped stories - even in the pro Star Trek comic book, so I figured I throw my hat in the ring.

Amok Time Flipped

Jennifer Kirk sat in the observation deck of the Enterprise, looking blindly at the stars slipping by. Her theological views were rather sketchy, but she was certain that if there was a literal Hell, it would consist of endless days like this one.

Of course, the day had actually begun two days before with her disobeying a direct order from an admiral and diverting to Vulcan. Under pressure, Spock finally admitted that his increasingly unstable behavior was caused by the Vulcan mating drive. He must return to Vulcan and take a mate, or die. What else could she do? Spock had saved the ship and her more times than she could remember. So she ordered the ship to Vulcan, and damn the consequences.

Spock had surprised both McCoy and herself by asking them to attend the ceremony. Then, when they arrived at Vulcan, everyone on the bridge was stunned to have the young Vulcan woman on the screen introduced as Spock's wife. Kirk and McCoy looked at him in confusion until he explained some (but not enough, as it turned out) of the customs surrounding Vulcan marriage.

They beamed down to Vulcan, landing near an ancient stone circle. It was, as Spock explained, the traditional marriage place of his family, and had been so for thousands of years. A procession entered the circle, including T'Pau, "all of Vulcan in one package" as she explained to McCoy. Spock's files were maddingly silent on his life pre-Fleet; she didn't know he was so highly placed in Vulcan society until today.

Traditional words were spoken, little bells were rung...and then Spock's intended threw everything into disaray. She claimed the challenge, as was her right. Two men would fight for her. To everyone's amazement (and, oh yes, those Vulcans were amazed, thought Jennifer, though they hid it well), T'Pring chose McCoy. The look of startled dismay on his face would have been comical if the situation was not so dire.

McCoy had been resistant to the very idea. "I'm no fighter, Jen," he had protested. Jen had asked T'Pau what would happen if McCoy refused.

"Our laws are not binding on thee. If he refuses the challenge, she must choose another."

The Vulcans were amazed again. Spock, against all expectations, managed to get out a few words. "Don't, T'Pau," he pleaded. "They don't understand."

T'Pau raised one eyebrow. "You speak?"

"Please, they don't understand," he repeated.

"Understand? What don't we understand?" asked Jennifer. Then, more sharply, "Report, Mr. Spock." But Spock had sunk back into whatever hormone-induced hell he was inhabiting.

"Thy decision, Doctor?" asked T'Pau. She might have been asking for the weather report.

It was only after he reluctantly accepted the challenge that the Vulcans mentioned (in passing, no less) that this was a fight to the death. Protest was vain. When Jennifer persisted, the very large Vulcan with an ever larger axe waved said axe very close to her throat. A gray-faced McCoy told her to stop.

The fight was almost over before it started. Spock began with a vicious swife that open McCoy's shirt open on the left arm, leaving a cut that started seeping blood immediately. Jennifer's heart sank as she watched McCoy fight only defensively. If Spock had not already been so weakened by the days of Plok tow, McCoy wouldn't have lasted thirty seconds. As it was, McCoy managed to keep dancing out of the way of Spock's lirpa, but Jennifer could see Bones was exhausting himself. This fight could only end in one way. She would not close her eyes. She had talked Bones into this; she owed it to him to watch.

In the end, it was a mistake that saved him. McCoy's foot slid on the sand, causing him to hop back awkwardly to regain his balance. The blade of Spock's lirpa whistled through the place he should have been. Startled, McCoy swung up the blunt end of his lirpa right under Spock's jaw, causing the Vulcan's head to snap back. Before Spock could recover McCoy hit him in the stomach, and then smacked him hard in the head with the flat of the lirpa's blade. Spock collapsed.

Everything was still for a moment. McCoy stood there, leaning on his lirpa, a looked of stunned disbelief on his face. He gave himself a little shake, tossed the weapon aside and dropped to his knees even as T'Pau yelled "Kroy-kah!" McCoy felt Spock's neck, and then looked up at Kirk.

"My kit, now!" he gasped out.

Kirk rushed towards them, ignoring the Vulcans. She tossed the medkit to the doctor. McCoy rummaged through it and pulled out a hypo and a vial. He slapped the vial into the hypo and injected Spock. He ran his scanner over Spock, and gave him another shot. His head remained bowed. McCoy ran his hand lightly over Spock's head; his hand came away stained with green blood.

"Bones?" said Kirk, her voice anxious. Nothing. "Doctor McCoy!" she snapped.

McCoy didn't seem to hear her. He rose unsteadily to his feet and stalked towards the Vulcans. He stopped a few feet in front of T'Pau.

"Is this over now, or are there any more littl' details you'd like to spring on us? Have you folks ever heard of the phrase 'informed consent'?" he demanded, his accent thick.

Kirk looked on, frozen by disbelief and overwhelming grief. She should stop McCoy before he insulted T'Pau, and through her, all of Vulcan. She knew his accent only became that strong when he was very tired, very happy, or very angry. And he seemed to have passed the very angry stage, and was now heading for incandescent fury.

T'Pau studied McCoy for a moment. "The Kal-i-fee has been accepted, and completed. The woman T'Pring is yours, your chattel, if you so choose. What is thy decision, Doctor?"

McCoy's eyes swept up and down T'Pring, a look of utter contempt on his face.

"Oh, I'm tempted, all right. I could drag your worthless self back to Earth. Leave you with my cousin Emily. She lives in Nome. I bet you would just love the winters there." He looked down at his hands, covered with blood both green and red, an obscene holiday decoration. He unwrapped the ceremonial sash from around his waist and made a great show of wiping the blood off his hands. He thrust the blood-soaked cloth into T'Pring's hand, who dropped it instantly.

"There, now darlin'" he said with a mirthless smile. "I wouldn't want to be the only one with blood on my hands today." He turned from her and faced T'Pau.

"I may have won, but I don't want her. It'll be a cold day in Hell before I ever want to lay eyes on her again." He glanced at Stonn. "You, son, are welcome to her. For myself, I'd sooner share my bed with a cottonmouth." He turned his back on the Vulcans and walked back to Kirk.

"Captain, request permission to return to the ship," he said evenly.

Kirk nodded numbly and handed McCoy a communicator. She heard the footsteps, the call to the Enterprise to request a stretcher, and then the familar whine of the transporter. Jen managed one step, then another, She came to a stop in front of T'Pring.

"Explain yourself," she snapped. "What could excuse this?"

"I wanted Stonn, he wanted me. By the laws of my people, I could only divorce Spock by claiming the Kal-i-fee."

"But why McCoy? Why not Stonn?" Part of Kirk wanted to understand, even though another part of her wanted desperately to throttle the woman in front of her.

"Although Spock was deep in the plak-tow, he was an experienced officer and I judged the danger to Stonn to be unacceptably high. I chose the doctor as being less likely to have the skill to defeat Spock. If the doctor won, he would not want me, and I would be free to marry Stonn. If Spock won, we would not want me, as I had declared kah-i-fee. And even if he claimed his right, he would rejoin his ship. He would be gone, I would have his name and property - and Stonn would still be here."

"Very logical,"said Kirk, the familair word bitter in her mouth.

"Of course," she said serenely.

"And what of Vulcan respect for life?" demanded Kirk.

"It is illogical to bemoan what can not be changed. Vulcan biology is what it is, Captain."

"Of course. The fact that you have destroyed two lives today is of no consequence, I'm sure," Jennifer sneered.

One elegant eyebrow swept upwards, the first hint of emotion T'Pring had shown. "Two lives? How so?"

"I would say that Dr. McCoy has more respect for life in his little finger than you have in your whole oh-so-superior Vulcan body. He once had to kill once, to save a shipmate, and that devastated him," said Kirk, casting her mind back to that awful incident with the salt vampire. "He takes his oath to preserve life seriously. You have no damn idea, do you, the harm you've caused this day?" Jen studied T'Pring's face. No, the Vulcan ice bitch didn't have a clue.

Jen turned to T'Pau. "I must go back to my ship."

T'Pau raised her hand in the Vulcan salute. "Live long and prosper, Kirk."

Jen returned the salute, but said nothing.

-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-

She could hear the door to the observation deck slide open. She had told the bridge she would be down here, and that she was not to be disturbed for anything less than a full-out Klingon offensive. The number of people who would ignore that order - well, she could count them on the fingers of one hand. She didn't have to look up.

"Bones."

She stood up to face him, and felt another pang of guilt. His left arm was in a sling. Had she ruined the career of the finest surgeon in the Fleet? He saw her face, and managed a small smile.

"Don't worry," he said. "Nothing major, I'll just need a few more sessions with the regenerator to have everything back to normal. This is more of a precaution, to remind me to let it rest."

The silence hung between them for a long moment before they both blurted out, "I'm sorry,"

There was a longer silence, and then McCoy gave a small laugh. "Aren't we a sorry pair?"

But I am sorry. Damn, Bones, you could have been killed down there, and all because I talked you into accepting that challenge."

McCoy shook his head. "Well, I think that was more the Vulcans' fault. If you had told me last week that Vulcans still dueled to the death for their mates, I would have dragged you in for a psych evaluation."

"Yeah, but still, you had a bad feeling about it, and I just dismissed it as you being your usual worrywort self."

McCoy looked mildly offended. "If I'm a worrywort, it's because certain highly-ranked members of this crew will not listen to my perfectly sound medical advice until they're at death's door."

"What the heck happened? I get back to the ship, and I'm told you gave Spock a shot, and then collapsed yourself. I thought...I thought I had lost both of you. And then I get to sick bay and Spock is regaining consciousness and you were in surgery, getting your arm patched up."

"Oh, that. Planet side, I saw my chance and gave Spock a neuroparalyzer. A bit risky, if I couldn't give him the counter-agent in time, but I was short on options."

"Yes, why did you do that?" asked Jennifer. She tried to keep her voice even and neutral, but some of the anger leaked through.

"Sorry, but I didn't know how literally they were going to insist on that whole 'to the death' thing. Thus the drug."

"And why the rant to T'Pring and T'Pau? Why waste time?"

"Well, I was angry, and I admit I wasn't thinking quite right, and don't you dare mention that to Spock. Having your better judgment go out the airlock, why that's one of the first symptoms of hypoxia."

"Has Spock spoken to you?" Jen had no idea; she had been busy giving orders to the bridge and placating the Admiralty.

"Spock is still a mess, emotionally speaking. He checked himself out of sickbay, against medical advice..."

Jen snorted at that, and turned to look out the window. "So things are getting back to normal?"

McCoy raised one eyebrow at her, and studied her for a long moment.

"Jen," he said. Kirk turned to him, question in her eyes. "Go to him." She looked at him in surprise. Surely he couldn't mean?

"Go. To. Him." repeated McCoy, emphasizing each word.

"Bones, you can't be serious," she started.

"Do I sound like I'm kidding around?" he demanded, exasperated. "You two have been dancing around each other long enough. It's well past time you do something about it, and gods know he won't take the first step, so it is up to you."

"But he's my first officer," she started. McCoy cut her off once again.

"This isn't the blasted 20th century. There have been ships officers who have also been couples in the past. Hell, Captain and Dr. April on this very ship, so that excuse doesn't fly, Jen."

Jen paced the room, agitated. "I don't know if I can."

"Of course you can. You are adult professionals. If anyone can carry this off, it is you two." She could feel Bones' intent gaze on her. Well, why not? Bones was right (blast him). Spock and she should resolve this thing between them, one way or the other.

Kirk gave McCoy an impulsive hug, avoiding his injured arm at the last second. "I love you, Bones," she said and then she was gone.

McCoy stood in the dark room, looking at the door she had just exited.

"I love you too, Jen," he whispered.

-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-

Not my usual humorous line of work, but I can now say I have managed to finish a story in a serious vein.

If you wonder why T'Pau didn't say "I grieve with thee", it's because, in my version, she knew damned good and well Spock was only stunned (and drugged - yay McCoy), not dead. They are family, after all.

For non-U.S. readers - the Eastern cottonmouth ( _Agkistrodon piscivorus_ ), also known as the water moccasin, is a venomous snake found in the eastern and southern sections of the United States. They do not qualify as cuddly pets.

I have an idea for another Amok Time genderbender, with Bones as a female. It still won't quite come together.


End file.
